Caught at a Crossroads
by DemigodDaughterOfTheTARDIS
Summary: The Doctor can't handle the pain of having lost his wife any longer... and is willing to use the final option. He's going to make a deal. Demon!Doctor later on.
1. Chapter 1

_Vworp. Vworp._

The trees blew and the leaves scattered on the ground started to stir as a large blue box faded into sight. It sat there for a moment, while the world continued on around it. But no one would have seen the blue box - the madman that belonged to it would have made sure of that.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open. A man came out - dressed head-to-toe like some dandy from the Victorian Era in a light grey shirt, purple-grey waistcoat, purple coat, black slacks, and a matching purple bowtie. He made his way over to the middle of the crossroads, throwing supplies on the ground before going back over to his box. He went to go inside, but the door seemed to be locked.

The man huffed, before pounding heavily on the door. "Oi, open up!" he shouted.

The box made several groaning and humming sounds - almost as if she was reprimanding the man - before silence took over once more.

"I know you don't like the idea, Old Girl." the man said, leaning his head against the door. "But I can't take this anymore. I _need_ her back. I can't… I can't live like this any longer."

It took another few seconds, but the TARDIS opened up her doors. "Thank you." he said softly, before heading back inside and retrieving the shovel.

It only took a few seconds for the last of the Time Lords to dig a hole deep enough, and then he picked up the box that he had thrown on the ground.

He then pulled the other things he would need out of his pockets- a plastic baggie of graveyard dirt, which was quickly dumped into the little tin box, and the leg bone of a black cat. He stopped for a moment to think about how much easier things were with trans-dimensional pockets, before shaking his head and trying to get himself back on track. The last thing to be added was the hardest to part with - even if it was only for a short amount of time.

The Doctor slowly pulled one last thing out of his inner jacket pocket - the beat-up leather wallet that he kept his psychic paper in. He opened it up, before pulling out the one picture that he kept with him at all times. He examined it for a moment, remembering all of the adventures had with the woman in the picture.

It was of two people, and one of them was him. The other was the woman who stole his hearts. In the picture, her curly hair was flying everywhere, and the shimmering evening gown that she wore made her look even more _yowzah_ than usual. The Doctor smiled, pressing the picture to his lips softly one last time, before placing it in the box and closing the lid. Then he buried the box, and waited.

He stood up, looking around the crossroads for a moment before uttering muffled curses and stomping his foot.

"Now, now." an English-accented voice called out. "Is that any way to behave?"

The Time Lord spun around, mouth set in a hard line of grim determination as he stared at the man who was now leaning against his TARDIS. He couldn't make out the man because of the shadows surrounding him, but that didn't matter.

"I need to make a deal." he said grimly.

"Well if it isn't the ageless god himself. What can I do for you Doctor?" The man in the shadows asked.

"My wife, River…" he said slowly. "Can you bring her back?"

The man moved forward out of the shadows, but the Doctor was too busy studying the ground for him to notice.

"Please." he begged. "I need her, more than anything." That was when he looked up, and actually _saw_ who he was talking to.

"Canton?" he asked, moving closer to the man.

"The name's Crowley." the King of the Crossroads said gruffly.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked. "Because you look an awful lot like Canton Everett Delaware III to me. But you can't be, because I _met_ old Canton, and you're still young -"

"I'm a lot older than I look."

"Yeah, join the club mate." the Doctor chuckled. "Most of my _family_ …" he cut himself off, with a wince of pain and longing so great that even the demon had a hard time stopping himself from comforting the ageless god in front of him.

But he managed to carry on. "My family _was_ the same. My father-in-law was especially good at that." There was a moment of silence before he managed to continue talking.

"Can you do it?" he asked again.

"Perhaps." the demon replied, and the Doctor's head shot up. He practically shook with rage as he yelled.

"Just answer the question, Crowley!" he raged, practically throwing himself around as he paced a quick circle.

The king of demons studied the man in front of him more closely now. He had heard a lot about the Last of the Time Lords, of course - it came with the territory. But he had never seen him this frantic before, not about anything. Not after the Time War, not after he lost Rose Tyler… whoever this River Song was, she meant a lot to him.

"Of course." was his smooth reply. The other man looked so relieved and overjoyed for a moment, that he almost felt bad about what he was going to say next.

Almost.

"You have the standard ten-year deal, of course. Then I'll come to collect my prize." he felt his lips twitch upwards, and fought the smile for a second before just giving in. "A Time Lord's soul is a valuable commodity, after all."

The Doctor seemed to think about it for a few seconds, but Crowley could tell - his mind was already made up.

"I give you my word." he said, his voice low and gravelly. "Just - help me."

Crowley smirked, and made absolutely no effort to hide it this time. "I'm pretty sure the Winchesters have that on a t-shirt." he quipped, before moving closer to the Doctor.

The ancient being moved back a few steps, as though he was nervous about being in such close proximity to a demon. "What are you doing, Crowley?" he asked, and the demon smiled as the Time Lord adjusted his bow tie. This face of his had a certain… boyish charm to it, he would admit. Which would make what came next that much sweeter.

"Didn't you know?" he asked, attempting to sound innocent even as he continued to move forward. That got the Doctor to back up in turn, until he ran into the side of his TARDIS. "The deal has to be sealed with a kiss."

The other man looked nervous - although Crowley had a feeling that it had less to do with the thought of kissing another man, and more to do with what his wife might do if she found out.

"Alright, Crowley." the Doctor said shortly. Before he had a chance to say another word, the King of Hell had smashed his lips against his. There was, of course, the customary moment of flailing that occurred when anyone other than River kissed him - luckily he had managed to fix that over the years - but the kiss was over before he had a chance to stop.

"Right. Yes. That… happened." the Doctor said, still flailing a bit as Crowley wiped at his lips. "Now, where will she be, Crowley? Where will River wake up?"

The demon snapped his his fingers with a satisfied look on your face. "I don't know, mate." he said easily. "Best guess? Wherever she died."

The Doctor paled and muttered, "The Library." before rushing over to the TARDIS with the first real shred of hope that he had felt in centuries.

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River Song gasped as her eyes flew open and she breathed in her first real air in centuries.

 **A/N~ Thank you all so much for reading this! I'm thinking about turning this into a series involving River Song and the Doctor before and after he's demonized, but I'm really not sure… let me know what you think about the idea! The inspiration for this was from a gifset on tumblr by riveralwaysknew… she is completely amazing and deserves so much praise.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N~ So a few quick notes - this is pretty canon compliant, with the Doctor not visiting River in the Library Database and being distracted by Clara and all that. The only big difference is that Eleven took her to the Singing Towers instead of Twelve.**

He was running for the TARDIS almost as soon as Crowley had told him that the deed was done. Hope was building up inside of him, filling him with a warmth that he hadn't felt since their last night together, at Darillium. Even the distraction that was Clara Oswald hadn't made him feel this good.

Then again, Clara Oswald didn't have anything on his wife.

He performed his usual mad dash around the console, pressing buttons and flipping switches, culminating with a dramatic flick of the wibbley lever, as his Amelia Pond had liked to call it.

He had set the coordinates for just a few hours after he had left the Library the first time, expecting it to be mostly empty by then.

He didn't notice when the Old Girl switched the coordinates on him.

So when he opened the doors to find the Library looking nothing like how he remembered it, he was shocked to say the least. The planet was no longer dark and abandoned and filled with flesh eating shadows. Instead, it was bright and airy and filled to the brim with people. He only took a quick glimpse of the species there, but he still saw a few Silurians, a Tivolian - reading _How to Prepare to be Conquered,_ he noted with fond exasperation - and even a Chyqralp, which he avoided along with all of the other patrons of the Library. The poisonous quills lining the back of their neck made it very easy to want to leave them alone.

But they weren't his main concern, and he took all of that information in in a few seconds even as he scanned the room, searching for the information desk. Once he found it, he ran over, not even noticing as he tripped up other people and generally made a nuisance of himself as he crossed the room.

"Where is River Song?" he asked immediately, not waiting for the information node to turn around and not caring that people were staring and starting to talk. "Please, where is she? I know she's here somewhere!"

He could here people whispering behind him: "Who's that?" "Who's he asking about?" "Hello sweetie." "Isn't she the one who died here?"

Then he froze, and replayed the last few phrases in his head, before slowly turning around.

And there she was, just standing there and smiling up at him. She looked just like she had all of those centuries ago - that horrible spacesuit on her, with her reddish-blonde curls tied up on top of her head and blue-green eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

There was that one strange moment where neither one of them dared to move, neither one dared to say a word for fear that everything would just stop, like some sort of horrible dream.

Then River smiled at him, and just like that, he knew that everything was going to turn out alright.

He spread his hands, giving her that confident little smirk that he knew sent shivers down her spine. There would be a chance later on for words to be said and blows to be exchanged - for he was certain that she was going to end up slapping him at least once - but he didn't care. The only thing that he could think about was that his wife was _there_ and _real_ and he didn't care what that deal would end up costing him, it was absolutely worth it just to be able to see her alive once more.

"Hi honey, I'm home." he quipped, the familiar phrase rolling off of his tongue.

She smirked right back, and he felt a familiar tingle running down his spine. "And what sort of time do you call this?" she replied, and her voice was hoarse.

That was the moment that he strode over to her, not caring about their audience anymore and took her face in his hands, pressing his lips against hers for the first time in centuries. It was the fire that burns inside of his soul, and the air that he needs to breath, and it was completely, utterly _perfect_. The Doctor usually wasn't one for waxing romantic, but he decided that this was one of the few times that he would make an exception to the rule.

They broke apart to wild cheering, and it was then that he actually _noticed_ their audience, and he started blushing like he had at the very beginning of their relationship.

She pulled away enough to look up at him, and it was then that she noticed something was different. There was something in the way that he was looking at her… it was both endearing, and slightly unsettling, as if he was memorizing every inch of her face.

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They escaped the crowds of people that had surrounded them once they had realized that his wife was definitely _the_ Professor Song, the one who had died on that very planet centuries earlier. Of course, they didn't realize who he was - it was another example of how erasing himself from every database in the universe had worked in his favour. The TARDIS had practically lit up inside, and was happier than the Doctor had seen her since they had dropped his wife off after the Singing Towers.

River stroked a hand along the wall directly inside of the door, before doing the same thing at the console. "I missed you too, dear." she murmured gently, basking in the glow of a child returning home to her mother. For as much as the TARDIS was the Doctor's home and oldest companion, she was also a mother to her Child.

"So what do you think?" he asked her - it was the first thing that he could think of to say.

"Think?" she asked, turning to look at him. "Think of what?"

He gestured to the console room as a whole, and gave her a little smile. "Of the console room." he clarified. "The Old Girl's had some work done."

She smirked as she came around the console to stand in front of him, running her hands along the lapels of his coat. "I like it." she admitted. "It's not as nice as your's, though." she turned away again with a wink, walking over to the console again and starting to input coordinates for the Vortex, while the Doctor blushed.

"Yeah, well…" he trailed off even as he reached up to adjust his bow tie.

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As soon as the sentient timeship had been safely parked in the Vortex, the Doctor's wife turned on him.

"Well?" she asked, trying to keep a straight face. But he knew her well enough by now to know all of her tells, and while that knowledge had dulled over centuries of trying to forget her, he could still tell that she was hurting and trying to hide it.

So he gave her a reason to let it out, to stop hiding. "Well what?" he asked.

His face flew to the side as she delivered a hard slap across his cheek. "You left me." she accused. "For… for I don't even know how long!"

That made him physically flinch in pain. He couldn't tell her how long it had been for her - even he wasn't that good. But for him…

"Three hundred seventy six years, two months, eleven days, and four hours." he muttered.

There was a gasp, and then she hesitantly whispered, "What did you say?"

"Three hundred and seventy-six years!" he bellowed, turning to face her and letting all of his anger out. All of his hatred towards himself, for not getting to her sooner. Towards his younger self, for trapping her in the Database. Towards the Vashta Nerada, for being the ones to kill her, and leaving him knowing what her fate would be for the rest of their relationship. "That's how long you were in there… that's how long it took for me to get you out."

He collapsed down onto the steps that led up to console, and for the first time since she had married her Doctor, she saw just what she meant to him.

 **A/N~ Hello, my lovelies! So after this there might be a single chapter or two of domestic bliss, and then the bad things begin. Mwahahaha...**

 **Thank you to authorlouise, Guest, and jmstevens for their reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3

_He collapsed down on the steps that led up to the console, and for the first time since she had married her Doctor, she saw just what she meant to him._

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"I'm sorry, my love." she whispered softly as she dropped down to her knees next to him, wrapping her arms around him.

He looked up at her, and he almost managed to hide the pain in his eyes. Almost, but not completely. "I'm so sorry, River." he said softly, pulling her down so that her head lay in between his hearts. "It's all my fault."

She laughed softly at the familiar words, and her hair bounced, tickling his nose. Normally he would have pretended that he hated the feeling, but now he saw no point in it. There was no reason to keep her at arm's' length anymore.

"So go on." she said, sitting up so that she could look at him properly.

He looked at her, bemused. "What?"

"Tell me how you did it." she said, smiling down at him. "I know you're dying to let me know just how clever you are.

He froze, unsure of what to do. Granted, his wife made him feel like that a lot, especially during their early days. It hadn't mattered just who it was early days for, really. When he was the younger one, he found her foreknowledge infuriating, and was constantly terrified of doing the wrong thing, of disappointing her somehow. But when she was the younger one, he had been more scared of just how much she loved to torment him - using everything from the tiniest shorts imaginable, to writing dirty limericks when he was teaching her Gallifreyan. Of course, she still wrote naughty poetry, but at least her wardrobe had toned down enough that he wasn't constantly in danger of having one of his hearts give out. This time he froze because he had absolutely no idea as to what he should say.

"Oh, you know." he said, trying his best to sound carefree while in reality he was scrambling for a cover story. Because he knew his wife - probably better than anyone else, really. And he knew that if she knew the truth, she wouldn't rest until she found a way to break the contract. He didn't want that.

The only way to break the contract was for her to die again. He _really_ didn't want that.

"I did a thing. A clever thing." he said, and she just rolled her eyes before standing up, grabbing his lapels to pull him up as well.

"Well, I know another clever thing that you can do." she purred, and his hearts nearly skipped a beat. He knew that tone in her voice, and it had been centuries since he had heard it, or anything like it.

So it was a bit of a shock when he was the one moving eagerly towards their bedroom, and she was the one standing there awkwardly. He made it about halfway down the corridor before realizing that his wife wasn't pulling him along like she usually would.

He moved back to the console room, poking his head through the doorway to see her standing by the Time Rotor, playing with her hands awkwardly.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked, still bouncing a bit.

"Doctor…" she began slowly, and his face fell at her wary tone.

"What is it, River? What's happened?" he asked, moving across the room to stand next to her.

She looked almost uncharacteristically shy as she played with her hands, tangling her fingers together before pulling them apart again. "I know it's been a long time…" she started, her voice so soft that even his superior biology could barely make it out. "And so I understand if you've found someone else…"

But of course, he hadn't been thinking clearly at all, because his answer was this:

"Well of course I have - her name's Clara. Lovely little thing, slightly obsessed with cooking though. Not cooking so much as baking, and even then she's not the best. But she tries, which is lovely. In fact, I think you'd like her -"

He was cut off by a hard slap across the face that left him reeling. Clutching at his cheek with one hand, he looked over at his wife in confusion. "What did I do?" he whined, but she just stared at him with fire in her eyes.

"I can't believe that I thought you loved me." she choked out, a strange little smile on her face. "And now you think that I'll like the girl that taken my place in your bed? Because lord only knows that I never had the spot in your hearts!"

She whirls around then, beginning to do her own little dance around the console as her Vortex Manipulator is long since dust.

"River, what are you talking about? I only brought her onboard because it was what you asked me to do…" he was more confused then than he may have ever been in all of his life, and he had absolutely no idea why his wife was now looking at him with hatred even as her eyes threatened to spill over with tears.

"This is sick." she spat, moving around the console to stand next to him. "You think I asked you to bring some other woman on board? I didn't expect you to mourn me, but I also didn't expect you to go out right away and find someone else to take my place!"

That was when he froze - but he still managed to grab ahold of his wife's hand before she had a chance to smack him across the face again.

"Oh, River, that's… that's not what I meant." he said softly, pulling her closer. "I meant that she's my new companion." then he seemed to really comprehend what she had told him, and his face fell. "Is that really what you think?" he asked, and he could practically feel his hearts breaking as he looked her in the eyes. "That I don't care about you at all?"

She sniffed - the closest that she would ever get to crying in front of him. "Well it's not as though you've done all that much to prove that you do. You barely acknowledge that we're married, apart from when it suits you."

He sighed, although he really couldn't argue with her. She was right - River usually was. But in fairness to himself, he had been that way in the past because he loved her, and he didn't want to hurt when he lost her. Then, of course, once he had lost her, he realized just how foolish of him it was to think that way. "You're right." he sighed, and she looked up at him in surprise. He just chuckled softly. "I can admit when I'm wrong, you know." he said, bopping her on the nose.

"Right!" he said excitedly, hoping to distract her at least a little. He clapped his hands together before rushing towards the corridor again. "Are you coming, River?"

"I don't believe it works like that, sweetie." she said, her voice practically dripping with innuendo. It took him a moment, but once he got it his ears turned bright red.

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They had nearly ten years of bliss after that. The first week or so was… odd, to say the least. There were little things that they had both forgotten, like how he took his tea or where she was ticklish. But they had quickly managed to fix that, and were soon back into the old routine. They traveled throughout all of time and space - saving civilizations, defeating monsters, and doing an awful lot of flirt - running. He meant running. Absolutely, nothing else but running.

All of time and space. You watch us run.

They visited planets where the skies were full of diamonds, and others where the seas were full of disgusting bloody carcasses. They saw the star whale migration of 2374, and the first anti-grav Olympics, where River won so many gold medals that they were chased by an angry mob and accused of rigging the Games. They fought pirates, or rather, River fought pirates while he tried to keep from being stabbed. They traveled to a planet called Ra'ni where River was nearly sacrificed to their gods because of her hair, and it was up to the Doctor to save her.

They carved themselves into myths and legends, wrote love notes into songs and poetry. They were gods on so many planets - he liked to tease that it was because of her hair. She liked to tease that it was because of his eyebrows, which would make him pout until she kissed him. They became the centre of love stories and fairytales. Their story was every story, and they had never been happier.

Until the day when everything changed.

 **A/N~ So this chapter is a lot of angst, and a lot of romantical fluff… two things I really try to avoid. Well, I say try to avoid… really I kind of just save it all up for particular times and then let it all out.**

 **Also, I'm not sure when exactly in the Supernatural timeline I want this to be. I don't want it to be too far along, because its honestly gotten to the point where there's far too much angst and things in the show for my tastes - sorry if that offends any of you lovely readers. Also, Bobby's gone, and he was my favorite, so….**

 **Thank you to KirkSauber, Charlie-BADWOLF, and Guest for their reviews!**


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